High honor of the National Geographic Society, a Special
Gold Medal is presented by President Eisenhower to Britain's
Prince Philip in 1957. Society Board Chairman Melville Bell
Grosvenor, then president, points out the inscription.
Temporary thaw in the cold war: President Eisenhower and
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev help a flower-laden Mrs.
Khrushchev from a car. The Russians' arrival in Washington,
D. C., began a 13-day tour of the United States in 1959.
came to the troubled Asian land.
Shortly after the Allies attained
their smashing victory in Europe,
Ike had voiced his views on the
need and use of national power,
which now guided him as Presi
dent: "It is to our interest to see
that we are strong.... Weakness
cannot cooperate with anything.
Only strength can cooperate....
I believe we should be strong, but
we should be tolerant. We should
be ready to defend our rights but
we should be considerate and rec
ognize the rights of the other man."
Ike brought an essentially con
servative philosophy to the White
House; in three of his eight years
in office he managed to balance the
Federal budget. Yet his Govern
ment passed the first civil rights
law in 80 years, raised the national
minimum wage, and also extended
unemployment insurance and So
cial Security to millions of low
income Americans.
As one of his White House aides
recalled, Ike absolutely refused to
"use the prestige of the Presidency
to promote or tear down another
individual publicly by name. He
was acutely conscious of the fact
that a word from the President...
could cause damage to another
human being out of all proportion
to the power one person should
have over the fortunes of another."
Ike Withholds Censure
This policy sometimes evoked
criticism, as in his handling of the
wholesale accusations of Com
munism against prominent Amer
icans, leveled in the early 1950's
by Senator Joseph McCarthy. To
advisers who urged him to de
nounce McCarthy, Ike said, "All
you do is double the audience he
had the first time." Eventually the
Senate itself, without executive in
tervention, disciplined the free
wheeling Senator from Wisconsin.
In 1966 Eisenhower sent a let
ter to James C. Hagerty, his former
press secretary, listing "from the
top of my head" 23 achievements
of his administration. Mr. Hagerty
did not release the text until after
32